It was a high tempo start with Gloucester threatening in the Blues twenty two before being awarded a penalty that former Blues favourite Robinson hooked right. With the cherry and whites putting more pressure on the Blues, Tom James was penalized for offside, which gave Robinson another chance at goal that this time he converted. Blair slotted one back for the Blues minutes later to level the scores.
A superb piece of play by Tom James nearly resulted in the first try of the game. The powerful winger used his strength to shake off two tacklers before chipping Freddie Burns and gathering the difficult ball to touch down in the corner. However TMO Tony Rowlands deemed he had dropped it over the line and no try was awarded.
The Blues came close again with Blair and Czekaj combining well but the try came through Casey Laulala, who broke through the middle of midfield 50 yards out, and stepped Burns brilliantly to touch down under the posts. Blair converted.
Gloucester struck back on the turn of half time when the blues tried to run the ball from their won half. A long Ceri Sweeny pass was intercepted by Burns who sprinted in under the posts. Robinson converted to level the scores.
Half time Cardiff Blues 10 Gloucester 10
Gloucester started the second half strongly driving the ball all the way to within two yards of the Blues try-line. However, the home pack did well and turned the ball over with Blair breaking out releasing Czekaj who took the ball all the way up to the half way line.
Gloucester had the chance to regain the lead but again Robinson hooked his penalty wide following good build up play by the visitors. The Blues were dealt a blow when Open-side Ben White was shown a yellow card for slowing down the ball just yards from the tryline following a Akapsui Qera break. Gloucester took a quick penalty and James nearly crashed over before they spread the ball right and used the overlap to put James Simpson Daniel over. This time Robinson was accurate with the boot to add the extras.
The Blues nearly struck right back with Filise again showing his strength and nearly crashing over with a characteristic rampaging run. They were awarded a penalty for a high tackle and the Blues opted for a lineout. They picked and drove before eventually being awarded another penalty that this time Blair slotted to narrow the margin.
The score lifted the Blues who started to look threatening driving the ball up-field and always looking to spread the ball. However it was Gloucester who got the next score, following some slick hands by Qera who fed Simpson Daniel to run in for his second and the game was starting to slip away from the Blues. Things went from bad to worse when Simpson Daniel got his hat-trick latching onto a neat Freddie Burns chip.
Ceri Sweeny got one back for the home side following some good work by Casey Laulala. However it was too little too late as Gloucester booked their place in the LV Cup final.
Cardiff Blues 15 Ben Blair 14 Tom James 13 Casey Laulala 12 Dafydd Hewitt 75off 11 Chris Czekaj 10 Ceri Sweeney 9 Gareth Cooper 68off
1 Faao Filise 2 T Rhys Thomas 3 Scott Andrews 4 Scott Morgan 62off 5 Paul Tito (Capt) 6 Andy Powell 62off 7 Ben White 8 Xavier Rush
16 Huw Dowden 17 Ian George 18 Nathan Trevett 19 Andries Petorius 62on 20 Maama Molitika 62on 21 Darren Allinson 68on 22 Sam Norton-Knight 23 Gavin Evans 75on
Gloucester 15 Freddie Burns 14 James Simpson-Daniel 13 Mike Tindall (capt) 12 Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu 11 Lesley Vainikolo 10 Nicky Robinson 9 Dave Lewis
1 Nick Wood 2 Olivier Azam 3 Paul Doran-Jones 4 Will James 5 Alex Brown 6 Peter Buxton 7 Akapusi Qera 8 Jake Boer
16 Darren Dawidiuk 17 Alasdair Dickinson 18 Pierre Capdevielle 19 Adam Eustace 20 Andrew Hazell 21 Jordi Pasqualin 22 Tim Molenaar 23 Tom Voyce
Referee: George Clancy IRFU
Yellow Cards: Ben White
Cardiff Blues
Tries Laulala x 1 Sweeney x 1
Pen Blair x 2
Con Blair x 1
D/G
Gloucester
Tries Burns x 1 Simpson Daniel x 3
Pen Robinson x 1
Con Robinson x 3
D/G